Martin Webb, a fellow Colditz Society member and a chap with a keen eye for a Colditz story, recenty spotted the following in the “Gloucester Citizen” newspaper.

Martin points out a couple of mistakes in the story:

1. Michael only met Hiter in a restaurant, he didn’t interview him;

2. The north Wales town near where he lives is Porthmadog not Port Maddock.

 LINK:

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=231771&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231773&contentPK=20527029&folderPk=108571&pNodeId=231887

‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT MY LIFE WOULD MAKE A GOOD FILM’

Date : 02.05.08

He Started out as a Citizen reporter, but since then Michael Burn has had a life set to be the stuff of Hollywood legend. In a career that has spanned 50 years, he has endured a spell imprisoned in Colditz, interviewed Adolf Hitler and Franklin Delano Roosevelt and been awarded the Military Cross for gallantry.

Now the 95-year-old’s extraordinary life will be immortalised after a Hollywood producer acquired the rights to his autobiography, Turned Towards the Sun, published in 2003.

“I always thought that my life was rather interesting and would make a good film but the interest from the Americans still came out of the blue” Mr Burn said.

“For me the real sense of achievement came when I finished my book, it was something I had always wanted to do and I’m very proud of it.

“The film interest is a wonderful bonus and something I am very happy about.”

The movie will focus on Mr Burn’s war years when he served as a captain of the commandos in the heroic and bloody raid on the docks of St Nazaire in western France in March 1942.

Despite being wounded - and after every man in his boat was killed - he helped other men to safety and fought his way to a rendezvous point, before being captured and eventually sent to Colditz.

At Colditz, Mr Burn used his skills as a journalist to help to operate the secret radio, writing down dispatches in shorthand that he then relayed to the other PoWs.

The film - to be produced by Robert Ozn - will be a cross between Saving Private Ryan, The Dirty Dozen and Brideshead Revisited.

A second movie - again using Mr Burn’s autobiography - will also been made focusing more heavily on St Nazaire itself.

Born into privilege, Mr Burn was the son of Sir Clive Burn, secretary and to solicitor to the Duchy of Cornwall.

He began his career as a journalist on The Citizen in 1924. During his 18-month spell at the newspaper he was sent on a six-week assignment to report on Hitler’s Germany where he attended a Nazi party rally at Nuremberg. He even met the Fuehrer thanks to his friend Unity Mitford, the English aristocrat and Nazi sympathiser who shot herself when Britain declared war on Germany.

He said: “I was fascinated by Hitler and National Socialism. Unemployment in Gloucester, and all over England, was very high at the time and I had been told that Hitler had all but eradicated it in Germany.

“Sadly I am ashamed to say I was taken in by National Socialism and Hitler for a short while. Luckily I was soon brought to my senses when I read the truth by journalists in England and America.

“I have spent the rest of my life attempting to correct this terrible blot on my history.”

After he left The Citizen, Mr Burn - who now lives in Port Maddock, North Wales - became a distinguished foreign correspondent and eventually joined The Times in 1936 - but still has plenty of fond memories of his time in Gloucestershire.

“It was my first real role within journalism and it was a time in my life that I enjoyed very much.

“The editor at the time, Mr Bell, was very supportive to me and encouraged me to go on and become a foreign correspondent, which I thankfully did - it was a wonderful time for me.”

Casting has yet to begin for the film but Jude Law is rumoured to head of actors in line for the lead role.

Mr Burn added: “I have no idea yet who is in line to play me but it’s something I am looking forward to finding out about.”

Douggie Moir sadly passed away on May 6th aged 89.

The following obituary is in todays Telegraph

LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1942625/Lieutenant-Colonel-Douggie-Moir.html#continue

PoW whose constant attempts to escape landed him in Colditz and solitary confinement.

Lieutenant-Colonel Douggie Moir, who died on May 6 aged 89, was taken prisoner in 1940 and made a series of escape attempts from German PoW camps, including Colditz.

Moir was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Tank Corps, later the Royal Tank Regiment (RTR), and was a troop leader in 3RTR, part of 30th Infantry Brigade, during the desperate rearguard action to hold Calais. Then a lieutenant, he was captured together with most of the brigade and imprisoned in Stalag VIIC at Laufen, Germany. Later, when he was being moved by cattle-truck to Warburg, he and a brother officer squeezed through a hatch window and jumped clear of the moving train.

They were at large for several days, but were then given away by a local and returned to Warburg. Moir was soon assisting in the planning for another escape attempt, which involved some 60 officers scaling the perimeter wire with makeshift ladders while fellow prisoners fused the lights and created distractions to confuse the guards.

He and two fellow prisoners managed to cross the strongly-fortified river Danube, some 200 miles away, and remained at liberty for nine days before they were eventually recaptured. Moir was moved to Oflag VIIB, near Eichstätt, where he used a period in solitary confinement to make new plans.

Moir and two Canadian officers made an improvised rope out of sheets and climbed down 90ft from the window of the schloss in which they were held. They negotiated the hazardous descent safely, but were spotted by a German patrol and returned to solitary confinement.

It was not long before Moir’s reputation resulted in his being transferred to Oflag IVC at Colditz, where he joined the elite group of professional escapers. He learned that the town gaol, to which recaptured escapers were almost invariably dispatched, had lax security, and he contrived to be captured during an “escape” attempt. Unfortunately for him, he was not locked up in the gaol but given a period of “solitary” in Colditz.

There Moir perfected his skills as a lock-picker and subsequently assisted in the assembly of the famous glider in the attic of the castle, an outrageously daring venture which the arrival of the Americans in April 1945 made redundant. The senior British officer at Colditz reported afterwards that Moir’s own audacious schemes did not prevent his giving wholehearted help to others with their preparations for escape. The resolution, courage and resourcefulness that he showed during nearly five years in captivity were recognised by a mention in dispatches in 1946.

Douglas Norman Moir was born on August 24 1918. His father was a civil engineer working in Basra, and his mother had to travel to India for the birth. The young Douggie returned to England for his schooling and was educated at Kelly College, Tavistock, Devon, where he excelled at rugby, athletics and swimming – activities which were to stand him in good stead 10 years later on his unofficial “exeats” from prison camp.

After the war Moir commanded a squadron of 7RTR, equipped with Stuart tanks and Fox armoured cars, on internal security operations at Amritsar during Partition. In 1958 he was selected to command the Royal Armoured Corps’ Junior Leader organisation.

It was a daunting task which might have defeated a lesser man, for its future camp was no more than a building site; but Moir’s blend of foresight and drive, and engaging nature produced high-quality young soldiers, and the building work was completed on schedule.

A spell as armoured adviser to the Jordanian army followed in 1961, and Moir then moved to Cologne as liaison officer to the Belgian Corps. After a final appointment on the AQ staff at Shrivenham, where he learned to play golf, he retired from the Army in 1969.

Moir and his wife established a guest house in a former vicarage overlooking Lydford Gorge, Devon. It proved a most successful undertaking, owing much to her charm and efficiency as a hostess and to his handyman skills, honed in prison. His duties, however, were not so onerous that they kept him from his fishing. In 1982 he finally retired to Tavistock, where he had been at school 50 years earlier.

Douggie Moir married, in 1945, Phyllis Wells, who survives him with their two daughters.

I have been fortunate enough to have recently corresponded with the daughter of one of the last Colditz veterans, Ralph Cowan.

Above. Ralph Cowen, Private, Kings Royal Rifle Corps, as drawn by Earl Haig.

Through our e-mails Lorraine and I have been able to piece together some information and pictures of Ralph which any Colditz enthusiast will be delighted to see. Some have rarely, if ever, been seen before.

In the ‘Men of Colditz’ section of this site there is a new ‘Individuals’ section of which Ralph’s is the first story. Please take the time to read Ralph’s story in his own words and enjoy his fantastic photos from Mooseburg & Colditz.

I am delighted to say “Skirmish - The Living History Magazine” has published an article written by myself on Colditz Castle. It is a 2 page spread and covers not just the history of the castle but also it’s uncertain future.

I have scanned it on to 2 word docs as it is hard to put it on here. If anyone wants to buy a copy of the mag it can be purchased from WH Smiths. If anyone wants me to e-mail them the word docs I can do so, please e mail me.

A scanned version is featured below but it is not a great copy. 

The Arctile also features 2 photos from guests who have been on my trips, Melvyn Lawes (night shot) & Alan Worrell (day shot).

The heroism of one of this newspaper’s most distinguished reporters ‘represents all that Americans admire about the British warrior’

The Times 29th March LINK 

Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent

 A Hollywood producer has acquired the rights to two books about a distinguished foreign correspondent of The Times, a war hero who was imprisoned in Colditz.
Michael Burn, 95, who filed a dispatch to the paper as soon as the Allies liberated him and his fellow PoWs, was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry. He has given his blessing to two separate films inspired by his life story.
One of them will focus on his war years when he served as a captain of the commandos in the heroic and bloody raid on the docks of St Nazaire in western France in March 1942. Despite being wounded – and after every man in his boat was killed – he helped other men to safety and fought his way to a rendezvous point, before being captured and eventually sent to Colditz. The other film will focus more heavily on St Nazaire itself.
News of the films came yesterday as Mr Burn’s fellow commando veterans gathered in France to commemorate the anniversary of the raid and the men who lost their lives.
Speaking to The Times yesterday, Mr Burn said of the films: “I hoped this would happen. I am very happy.”
The films will be based on his autobiography, Turned Towards the Sun, published in 2003, and James Dorrian’s Storming St Nazaire.
Their producer, Robert Ozn, whose films include I Witness starring Jeff Daniels and James Spader, is planning a cross between Saving Private Ryan, The Dirty Dozenand Brideshead Revisited. He said: “Michael Burn and the troops who fought at St Nazaire represent all that Americans admire about the British warrior – impossibly brave men who transcended class distinctions with a deep compassion and humanity for those less fortunate.”
Casting has yet to begin but Jude Law heads his list to play a man who was devastatingly handsome – to both men and women. Although Mr Burn later married, Guy Burgess was among his lovers long before he was unmasked as a Soviet spy and traitor. Mr Burn, who was to become a fervent Marxist, was born into privilege and wealth. He was the son of Sir Clive Burn, secretary and solicitor to the Duchy of Cornwall, and educated at Winchester and Oxford.
He began his career as a journalist on the Gloucester Citizen, which sent him on a six-week assignment to report on Hitler’s Germany. There, through his friend Unity Mitford – the English aristocrat so enamoured with Hitler that she shot herself when her homeland declared war on the Third Reich in 1939 – he met the Führer and was invited to a Nazi party rally at Nuremberg.
Yesterday, he said: “I am ashamed I was taken in for a short time by National Socialism. What made me sympathise was that there were the two million unemployed in England. I had seen that in the coalfields and it sickened me. I thought that anyone who cures that was a good person. I didn’t realise the rest, but I was soon disillusioned about there being anything good about National Socialism.”
He joined The Times in 1936, becoming a protégé of Geoffrey Dawson, the Editor, initially a champion of appeasement. Mr Burn recalled: “He said to me, ‘We’re thinking of sending you to be trained as our Washington correspondent.’ I said, ‘What about the war?’ It was July 1939 then. He said, ‘My dear boy, the danger of war is immeasurably removed.’ That was two months before. It was wishful thinking.
“So many were taken in. My father, who had been in the First World War, wanted peace and couldn’t bear it.”
At Colditz, Mr Burn used his skills as a journalist to help to operate the secret radio, writing down dispatches in shorthand that he then relayed to the other PoWs.
After the war, he worked as a foreign correspondent in Vienna, Yugoslavia and Hungary. The History of The Times, 1939-66, paid tribute to his reports as “an exercise in honesty”.
Mr Ozn said that The Times will have a starring role on screen as it was “so much part of his life”.
 
Challenge of Colditz
 
— Colditz was a sonderlager – a special camp for difficult prisoners and inveterate escapers
— Despite tight security for five years, 316 men made daring escape attempts. Prisoners tried to get away through tunnels, in disguise or by jumping out of windows and over the wire: 32 of them were successful
Source: Imperial War Museum

Michael Burn filed a dispatch to The Times as soon as the Allies liberated him and his fellow PoWs (Nigel Hughes)

Burn, left, gives a V for Victory sign at the moment of his capture after the St Nazaire raid

(nb it is my understanding he was giving a ‘V’ as an indication to those in the know as to the success of the mission, G.W, Ed.)